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About this project

WE MADE IT! But we are not done yet....

Thank you to each and every one of our backers! We made our goal of $20,000. This was the minimum needed in order to keep the production moving forward over the next few months as we edit the many hours of material we have shot. There are, however, more expenses ahead as we continue to edit and dive into post production. Any further contributions move us that much closer to the end goal of completing the film.

Let's keep it going!

With gratitude,

The Empires team

The Film:

Empires is a feature length documentary film and new media project which explores the impact of networks on histories and philosophies of political thought. We have spent the last year interviewing an extraordinary array of leading international thinkers on the ideas, philosophies and technologies including social and capital movements that are shaping our sciences and social structures, in our networked world.

To date Empires has been a
collaborative effort by a few very passionate people who have donated their
time and talent. We now have a rough cut of the film and our goal is to raise the needed funds to bring this to a fine cut in 3 months. In order to make this a reality, we need your help. Please help us achieve our goal by
contributing to our Kickstarter campaign today at whatever amount you can. Every dollar makes a
huge difference.

Learn more about the film by watching our trailer, meeting our speakers and exploring the links below. And please read the interview with director Marc Lafia, which gives a bit more context for the film.

If you know of others who may be
interested in supporting this film, please spread the word. And don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions - we want to hear from you. We will keep you posted along the way, and will be reaching out to
our supporters to provide feedback and contribute to the film in other
ways. We want this to be a truly collaborative effort. We can't do it without you.

A: I'm a film maker and artist, usually doing narrative films and video art installations. One night I got into discussion with a close friend who knows of my love for history, philosophy and political thought. She also knew my new media art works and the dotcom I had started, ArtandCulture, so she saw that I was very interested in network and social media. She suggested that I make a documentary film about these things.

Thinking about this, I had the desire to take a step back from all the political noise and heated rhetoric today and give myself a greater perspective of the present and our political thought. So I asked what happens at that moment when we know the limits of our world, geographically, when we can situate ourselves at a certain limit. We know at the point of Europe's conquest of the Americas that the earth is a finite dimension. We go from this moment to our networked world in which we can instantaneously communicate with any node in our planet. This has clearly changed our politics, our way of being, but we've not been able to articulate it. How do we give description of this present moment so we can live in it?

So how will politics function in a networked world of knowledge and people? I wanted to explore this but not from a particular political perspective per se but rather asking what have been the informative ideas, philosophies and technologies and social and capital movements that have shaped our sciences and social structures.The questions were then: How are we here as we are? How have we come to believe what we do? Who has power - who has agency - and what affords this power and what can it do.

Q: Wow, these are a lot big and important questions. So how does this all become a film called "Empires"?

A: Our world is full of empires: Empires in the political and geographical sense, but also empires of food, science, ideas, technologies. There are any number of ways to narrate histories - each of which can lead us to a different sense of the present, so what story are we telling. whose Who's narrating the story of our present?

This same friend connected me with a producer who been working at the Criterion Collection. I gave her a list of ideal people to interview and she started contacting a number of great thinkers to speak with us, and wonderfully, they were interested.

As we start to shape this film a complex portrait of the present emerges.

Q: Sounds epic. How close are you to finishing the film?

A: Yes, it's pretty grand yes and exciting. We now have a longer cut of the film which has been well received which is great and which gives me confidence to do the kickstarter campaign to finish the film. everything we have done so far --- all the shooting, the locations, everything of the last year -- has been out of pocket. There is still much to do. We really need to lock ourselves in a room with all the footage to get to a finer cut, shoot a few additional interviews, license archival footage, and build an online presence. These are the things that kickstarter funds will allow us to do.

Q. What plans do you have for the project beyond the long form documentary feature?

A. There are so so many great articles, essays, lectures, clips, etc that I came across doing research. We want to archive and post these online, organized around the topics of the film. Over the next few months we plan to use this research, clips from the film and our interviews to create a conversation and dialogue around the work.

FAQ

Have a question?
If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.

Rewards

Pledge $5 or more

THE FAN. Thanks for coming on board! We'll show our appreciation with a special thank you on our website list of supporters, and give you a big shout out on our Facebook page!

Estimated delivery:Jun 2012

You selected

Pledge $10 or more

22 backers

THE AMPLIFIER. Amplify the conversation. Be part of the archive and part of the film. We will interview you over Skype, email, however you like. Make the film.

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $25 or more

61 backers

THE PARTICIPANT. Be the first on your block to see EMPIRES! You'll receive a digital download of the film, and a personal thank you note from the director.

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $50 or more

38 backers

THE HACKER. Enjoy EMPIRES in the comfort of your own home. You'll receive a DVD copy of the film on its release, signed by the filmmaking team.

Estimated delivery:Dec 2012

You selected

Pledge $60 or more

8 backers
Limited (12 left of 20)

NEW REWARD! Get a fantastic book by one of EMPIRES' featured interview subjects. Chose from the list here. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1407330738/empires-the-film/posts
Pledge $100 and get two books of your choice!!

Estimated delivery:Jul 2012

You selected

Pledge $100 or more

20 backers
All gone!

THE NETWORKER. Show the world you care! Special thanks in the onscreen credits of the final film.

Estimated delivery:Dec 2012

You selected

Pledge $250 or more

4 backers

THE GLOBALIST. Why settle for the final cut? Receive an extended cut of the film on DVD. More from our interviewees, including Manuel De Landa, Saskia Sassen, Michael Hardt! More, more, more interview material included as a bonus feature!

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $500 or more

2 backers
Limited (3 left of 5)

THE IMPERIALIST. Hob nob with the heavyweights of the film world. Or at least the EMPIRES crew and our families and friends. You'll receive 4 tickets to the New York premiere of the film!

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $750 or more

1 backer
Limited (1 left of 2)

THE AGENT. This is the life! Host a private screening of the film in your own home for you and 8 of your closest friends - with the director in attendance! (driving distance from NYC only, pls)

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $1,500 or more

2 backers
Limited (3 left of 5)

THE EMPIRE BUILDER. Your name in lights. You'll receive associate producer credit on the film!

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

You selected

Pledge $5,000 or more

1 backer

THE 1%. In addition to all the rewards above, you'll receive executive producer credit on the film and the knowledge that you have made a HUGE difference!

Estimated delivery:Mar 2013

Funding period

Apr 18, 2012 - Jun 7, 2012
(49 days)

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